(Warsaw) Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence of plot to plant incendiary devices in packages aboard cargo planes bound for North America , one of which caught fire in a courier warehouse in Germany and the other ignited in a warehouse in England.
Posted at 1:13 p.m.
Vanessa Gera
Associated Press
Poland said last month it had arrested four people suspected of being linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage actions and was searching for two others. Lithuanian Prosecutor General Nida Grunskiene said on Tuesday that an unknown number of people were being detained in several countries, without giving further details.
These events come as Western officials say they are witnessing an intensification of Russia’s hybrid war of sabotage against Ukraine’s allies, including electoral disinformation and arson attacks in Europe this year. Several officials said they believed the attacks were the work of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, although Moscow has denied any involvement.
Poland’s internal security agency, or ABW, says incidents in Poland, as well as other EU and NATO member countries, have intensified this year. The ABW believes that they are initiated and coordinated by Russian special services. To date, twenty people have been charged in investigations by the public prosecutor, the ABW and the police.
Polish prosecutor Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska said the investigation focused on foreign agents carrying out acts of sabotage, including damaging industrial plants or critical infrastructure such as airports, planes and other vehicles, as well as arson using self-combustible packages sent to EU countries and the UK, which would ignite during transport by road or air.
She added that the group had tested a channel to send such packages to the United States and Canada.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to reveal details of the cargo plane incidents.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it has implemented additional security measures in recent months for certain shipments bound for the United States.
“We continually adjust our security posture as needed and promptly share all relevant information with our industry partners, including requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risks,” TSA assured.
Dirk Heinrichs, a spokesman for DHL in Germany, told The Associated Press by email that the company could not provide details about the case, but that it was “fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect its personnel, its network and its customers’ shipments.”
Last month, the head of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, warned that the United Kingdom was facing a “staggering increase” in assassination attempts, sabotage and other crimes on its soil, the part of Russia and Iran.
Mme Calów-Jaszewska said on October 25 that packages containing camouflaged explosives had been sent to EU countries and the United Kingdom through freight companies in order to “test the transfer channel of these packages” , which were ultimately destined for the United States and Canada.
Incendiary devices in Germany and the United Kingdom were both set off in July.
According to Thomas Haldenwang, head of German intelligence, one of them was used during a stopover at a DHL logistics center located at an airport in the city of Leipzig. German news agency dpa reported that the connecting flight containing the package, which came from one of the Baltics, was delayed in Leipzig and was on the ground when it burst into flames and set fire to a cargo container.
British counter-terrorism police are investigating whether Russian agents were behind an incendiary device in a package that caught fire at a DHL warehouse in Minworth, near Birmingham, central England, on July 22. The incident, first reported by the newspaper The Guardian and German television channels, is similar to what happened in Germany.
The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza also reported that a fire broke out in a courier truck near Warsaw.
“We are observing aggressive actions by Russian intelligence services. In particular, Russian espionage and sabotage in Germany are increasing, both quantitatively and qualitatively,” Haldenwang told the Budestag, Germany’s parliament, last month while discussing the incident. from Leipzig.
“The activities of Russian intelligence services in the real world and in cyberspace show that Germany is at the heart of Russia’s hybrid war against Western democracies,” he added.
“Russia uses its full range of tools: from influencing political discussions in Germany to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and sabotage. Russia’s willingness to use force proves that it is also willing to put human lives at risk. »
In a rare public speech laying out the main threats facing the UK, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said that “the GRU, in particular, is on a permanent mission to sow disorder on the streets of Britain and Europe: we have seen arson, sabotage and much more. Dangerous actions carried out with increasing recklessness.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called media reports of the alleged sabotage plot an example of “vague fabrication.”
